Another somewhat weird tradition is the buying and wearing of Christmas pins.  My paternal grandmother loved to wear these, and so she would get one for Mom and sometimes me as well.  (I looked in my jewelry box, but I don’t still have any of these, I was too hip to wear these as a young woman).

This is a horrible picture I took with my new from this century phone that I don’t know how to use.  My friend said that it was her mother’s, so it is probably 40 years old or so.  They used to cost about a dollar, and there would be big displays of these in the shops.  They were sold in a little box, sitting on cotton wool so one could give them as gifts.

I always liked the more unusual sort of pin, and these were purchased at Christmas time.  I have another one of the lobster pins (somewhere), and I have the frog as a plastic toy as well as in this metal pin.  I have had these for years and still occasionally wear them.

This one is new and not really gaudy enough to be a Christmas pin.

Another frog pin, are we sensing a theme here?

This is my current favorite and I have been wearing it a lot lately.   It’s so cheerful and not a bit Christmassy.

But this is the best holiday thing to wear (not a pin).   It’s actually intended as a Christmas ornament, but I put it on a bit of cord and wear it as a necklace.  The dog in the picture is my previous dog (Chow and Golden Retriever), so this necklace is probably at least 15 years old.   Whenever I wear this, people will stop me and ask where they can get one just like it (all one needs a time machine to purchase this).